Congratulations to my colleague Andrew Sparrow, who has been shortlisted for this year's Orwell prize for blogs. He is one of just six bloggers selected from 83 entries who stands a chance of winning the £3,000 prize.

When we announced we were running a blog prize this year, many people reached for the Sir Humphrey Appleby dictionary and praised us for being "courageous".

But judging the blogs showed how interesting and difficult it is to choose between them – with such a range of views, styles and experiences it is sometimes tricky to define what makes a great blog. But the blogs on our shortlist are great, and the blogosphere is only going to become more important in our political life.